Getting a Bamboo Tattoo in Thailand

Every so often I get the craving for a new tattoo and being in Thailand, surrounded by advertisements for bamboo tattoos, I promised myself I wouldn’t leave the country without one. A souvenir, one I’d find very hard to lose but also doesn’t take up any space in my backpack.

Last night we went out to our favourite restaurant and decided to head onto Khao San Road to check out some of the tattoo shops, you know, just to have a look around…

…Guess what happened?

Before you panic, I didn’t just dive straight in and pick something from a book, I had been eyeing something up about for a while that I had saved on my Iphone.

The reason for going with this (other than liking it obviously) was that I wanted something small and simple, I’ve got lots of other big ideas I need to save skin space for.

So right there and then I got my tattoo fix for the year and experienced getting a bamboo tattoo in Thailand.

The whole thing took about 40 minutes from start to finish and didn’t hurt nearly as much as I had expected.

The biggest positive however was how clean the whole process was, no blood at all during of after ‘the stabbing’ . In the following hours and days it was not nearly as sore as machine tattoo’s either.

As much as getting ink forced under your skin can be, it was a very pleasant experience.

If anyone is interested in getting a Tattoo on Khao San Road then I can happily recommend Up 2 U Tatoo on the second floor opposite Rikka Inn Hotel. I spent a long time going through their work and the quality was very good, it was very hygienic and everyone was very helpful.

Update 3 Years Later

For anyone who has stumbled across this post who is considering getting a bamboo tattoo, I thought it might be nice to have a little update as it’s been a few years. This is how the tattoo currently looks with no after-care whatsoever…

If you want to see a short clip of what it looks like being done check out the clip here Or maybe you’ve already had one done? How did you find it?

Really, no blood at all? That’s crazy! The bleeding and scabbing is the worst part of getting tattooed, so that would be awesome. Ok, the pain sucks too, but after several trips in there, at least I don’t cry anymore 🙂 Awesome that you now have a bamboo tattoo as a memory of Thailand.

haha no I don’t mean stupid there’s plenty of other options you could have gone for that would’ve qualified as stupid. I thought it was a cute idea but since you’re a dude didn’t really want to say cute lol

I got a tattoo ten years ago when I moved to the Philippines, I have never regretted it because it was such an important time in my life and the tattoo was a reminder. I hope yours will be as special for you.

Nice..i got a bamboo tattoo done while on Koh Phi Phi, found it so much easier and less painful than machine tats, love how the colours stay so vibrant. trying to find someone in UK who does this now as the rest of mine are all going to be bamboo inked. Only found someone in Bradford so far though…the hunt continues

This is interesting. I was under the impression that the manual tattoos take a lot longer than machine tattoos. I also got a bamboo tattoo in Bangkok, of a different variety – a machine tattoo of bamboo on my lower leg. It took 3 hours and was the most painful of all of my tattoos. Never again. Well, I said that until I got two more tattoos recently, but not near my ankle and achilles heel.Amber´s last blog post ..Settling Back in Bali

I remember always seeing so many people in Thailand getting tattoos while insanely drunk. I love the Thailand whatever attitude, that can be found in most of Asia, but geez some people probably regret it a lot.

I would be too much of a chicken to get a traditional bamboo tattoo done. I have a bunch of tattoos, but I get spastic about cleanliness. How did that seem? Did they use alcohol or a different antiseptic?

Everything seemed fine at this place. I did a bit of research on the shop beforehand and as they do standard machine tattoos as well the standards are just as you’d expect from any trusted tattoo place. I still follow the shop on Facebook and they do some pretty decent work.

Hi, we're Poi and Kirsty! Join us as we try to create the perfect life for ourselves doing what we love. There will be diving, skiing, teaching and more as we travel the world trying new things and having fun along the way. Want the full story?